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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think baths are completely overrated

193 replies

Mmmmbrekkie · 23/02/2019 16:03

Single parent and my children are with their father this weekend.

I’ve worked flat out all day on laundry, chores, admin. Thought I’d have a bath as a treat. Usually I love a long scalding shower. However I’ve got a bad back and thought that soaking in a bath with my book would be perfect.

Wrong.

I’d forgotten I don’t enjoy baths!
It’s lovely and warm for first five mins but I can’t stand the temperature gradually dropping. And so begins cycle of release of water, top up with hot water. Repeat. Repeat. But never really warm enough, or nor beyond a few minutes.

So many, especially women, love.

What am I missing?!

OP posts:
MollysLips · 23/02/2019 21:03

I've just realised your post couldn't have been much clearer... I think I can work this out. Sorry! Thanks again!

Alsohuman · 23/02/2019 21:14

Our shower stands idle all winter. We both loathe getting out of a nice hot shower and being instantly freezing. When you get out of a hot bath it's like being the Ready Brek kid, the warmth lasts well past getting dried and dressed.

bbysittingNC · 23/02/2019 21:26

Hmm I'm the opposite.
I don't like showers, i don't even remember the last time I had one.

I think it's because I don't like the standing up shenanigans!

Nice bath, not scalding because that makes me feel abit sick like I can't breathe. Some bubbles, but not too many because that's annoying. I love it.

Ithinkmycatisevil · 23/02/2019 21:33

I love a bath! Most relaxing things ever. I can literally stay in there for hours, topping it up with hot water. Probably why my water bill is so high!

I love the idea of insulating the bath with loft lagging, pure genius.

CherryPavlova · 23/02/2019 21:55

Baths are the answer to so many of life’s tribulations. They are the remedy for everything from period pain to marital disputes, from back pain to stress, from feeling cold and shivery to headaches. They are time for reflection, for peaceful solitude, for planning and for dreaming.

How can you not want a dimly lit, warm bathroom with lovely Moulton Brown candles and a huge glass of Sancerre?

Time40 · 24/02/2019 00:27

All you bath-haters ... honestly, you don't know what you're missing. You must never have got your bath technique sorted out. As for thinking baths are dirty .... weird. That's all I can say. Just weird.

LunafortJest · 24/02/2019 00:44

@Time40 No it's not weird, it is basic common sense. Just thik about it. With a shower the sweat, dead skin cells etc washes straight off you. In a bath, when you get out of the water, it is dirty with your sweat, oil, odour, dead skin cells etc and you stand up without rinsing that water off you. It's just basic common sense.

RagingWhoreBag · 24/02/2019 00:48

I do have a rinse afterwards, but not because I’m so filthy, just to rinse my hair properly and wash off the bubbles. Just how dirty are you people!?

Beamazing · 24/02/2019 04:08

Showers are for prison or the army. Baths are where it's at!

Purpleartichoke · 24/02/2019 04:16

I have a bath with a built in heater. It’s bliss.

I really splurged in this tub because I love baths so very much.

LaurieMarlow · 24/02/2019 08:50

it is basic common sense.

It’s not common sense at all, it’s another manifestation of a ridiculous 21st century hyper obsession with hygiene. See also washing towels daily, anti-bac madness.

Of course a bath isn’t dirty, you clean yourself with soap, shower gel, flannel, sponge, whatever. You emerge perfectly clean from this exercise, used water down the plug hole.

The amount of ‘dirt’ a person who showers/baths daily accumulates is minimal anyway.

Timtims · 24/02/2019 08:59

I love baths, as does everyone else in my household. Our shower gets used once a week by DH after his weekly sports club. Other than that, its 100% baths. When I go on holiday and there's no bath, I fantasize about baths until I get back home!

Strugglingtodomybest · 24/02/2019 09:04

@Purpleartichoke

I have a bath with a built in heater. It’s bliss.

This sounds brilliant, I've never heard of it before, did you buy it in the UK and if so, where from please?

WindsfromtheNE · 24/02/2019 09:04

Definitely baths here too. Will have a shower if that's the only option, but nothing beats a lovely warm lie down in a bath. So much more soothing for aches and pains. As for 'twee', well a knitted toilet roll cover is twee, but a bath really can't be described like that.

It's a Mumsnet thing to be evangelical about showers and tell people who bathe how dirty it is. Probably the same people who think you should wach the towels every day. Personally I find it hard to get worked up about how other people choose to clean themselves.

Strugglingtodomybest · 24/02/2019 09:07

It’s not common sense at all, it’s another manifestation of a ridiculous 21st century hyper obsession with hygiene. See also washing towels daily, anti-bac madness.

Couldn't agree more.

Alsohuman · 24/02/2019 09:30

Or me. How dirty can you be if you bathe every day?

mydogisthebest · 24/02/2019 09:41

I don't understand how some posters say they get cold in a shower. I am only in the shower minutes and have the water hot so why would I get cold.

Now a bath you are likely to get cold as the water cools and you always feel cold when you get out.

I would never ever think of a bath as relaxing or somewhere to have a drink, read, watch tv etc. I would far rather sit or lie on my comfy settee in comfortable clothes and read my book, watch tv, drink tea etc.

When I did used to bath I was always bored out of my mind, got out after literally minutes meaning all that hot water was wasted and then still had to use the shower to wash my hair.

I have measured the amount of water I use to shower and it is nowhere near a bath full, not even half a bath full

EBearhug · 24/02/2019 09:44

I don't understand how some posters say they get cold in a shower.

Poor water pressure, water coming from a tank which hasn't heated the water yet, draughty bathroom... it's quite easy. Baths can alo be inadequate in those circumstances.

JRMisOdious · 24/02/2019 09:47

VVU indeed. Except those awful ones stuck in the middle of the bedroom in certain hotels. 25 years ago maybe 😁

BertrandRussell · 24/02/2019 09:50

The two most over rated things are baths and lie ins. Oh and breakfast in bed. That’s 3. Never mind.

SerenDippitty · 24/02/2019 09:52

I have osteo arthritis in my knees, always used to love baths but find it difficult to sit down in one now so haven’t had one for about eight months. I do miss my baths.

Pimmsypimms · 24/02/2019 09:53

I only ever have baths when I'm ill with the flu/heavy cold, I make the water scalding hot and try and sweat it out.

LaurieMarlow · 24/02/2019 09:56

The two most over rated things are baths and lie ins. Oh and breakfast in bed

I adore all three of those things Grin

I don’t get any of them enough. Baths are probably the easiest to achieve as I can do it when the kids are in bed.

Alsohuman · 24/02/2019 09:58

I don’t get cold IN the shower, it’s getting out of it.

PineapplePower · 24/02/2019 10:20

I hate baths. Stewing in your own filth basically. I can only take them after I scrub the bathtub first, and by then I think it’s no longer worth it.

Japanese-style baths are the best though (as long as it’s not those studio apt plastic types, those are gross).

Shower yourself outside the bathtub (omg great for shaving your legs), then take a dip in a deep tub with a bottle of Muji bath salts.

Why haven’t builders anywhere else copied this bit of genius? It’s the best of both worlds.

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